MP High Court Gwalior: CBI To Probe Inter-State Human Trafficking

• The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the disappearance of 19-year-old Dolly Upadhyay from Gwalior, missing since April 2025.
• The court cited suspected inter-state human trafficking and the jurisdictional limitations of local police as key reasons for the transfer.
• Dolly's father filed a habeas corpus petition after local police efforts over nearly a year and a half yielded no clues.
• The existing criminal case, Crime No.356/2026, registered at Police Station Morar, Gwalior, will now be handled by the CBI.
• The court emphasized that a centralized agency is necessary to track multi-state criminal syndicates effectively, despite local police's "serious investigation."

Only a centralized agency possesses the necessary reach and resources to seamlessly track suspects and gather intelligence across state borders.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court, specifically its Gwalior Bench, has issued a significant order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the probe into the disappearance of a young woman from Gwalior. This directive comes nearly a year after 19-year-old Dolly Upadhyay vanished, with the court citing strong suspicions of inter-state human trafficking. The order, handed down by a division bench comprising Justice G.S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla, responds to a habeas corpus petition filed by Shelendra Kumar Upadhyay, Dolly's father, who sought the recovery of his daughter from what he described as illegal detention.

Dolly, who was 19 years and 8 months old at the time, was last seen on April 28, 2025, when she left her relatives' residence in Morar, Gwalior, to attend college but never returned. A missing person report was promptly lodged the following day. However, her father contended that local police efforts to trace her were insufficient, compelling him to approach the High Court on April 7, 2026. The court first addressed the matter on April 8, 2026, initiating a series of regular hearings and instructing the state to provide status reports and intensify search operations.

The court's decision to involve the CBI was primarily driven by the complex, multi-jurisdictional nature of the case, which strongly suggested an inter-state human trafficking investigation. Despite the local police at Police Station Morar, Gwalior, having registered a criminal case, Crime No.356/2026, against a suspect identified as Respondent No.4 and others, and having conducted what the court acknowledged as a "seriously investigating" inquiry for nearly a year and a half, Dolly Upadhyay's whereabouts remained unknown. A fresh status report, supported by an affidavit and presented on the day of the order, detailed extensive but fruitless efforts, including a nationwide search and data recovery operations involving the Cyber Forensic Unit and bank authorities.

The bench explicitly noted that the investigation had expanded to different cities across the country, an area where local police "know the limits" of their operational reach. This geographical spread, coupled with the "angle of illegal human trafficking" being suspected, underscored the need for a more centralized approach. Adding to the complexity, Respondent No.4, the individual suspected of holding Dolly, has himself been untraceable and out of contact with his family since April 2025, with a separate missing person report filed concerning his disappearance.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court CBI order articulated a clear rationale for its intervention, emphasizing that while the transfer of a probe to an agency like the CBI should not be invoked easily or as a routine matter, the unique circumstances of this Dolly Upadhyay missing person case warranted such a step. The court reasoned that even honest and vigilant local police forces face inherent jurisdictional limitations when confronted with multi-state criminal syndicates, which are frequently implicated in illegal human trafficking. In such scenarios, only a centralized agency possesses the necessary reach and resources to seamlessly track suspects and gather intelligence across state borders.

Acknowledging the profound "agony and anxiety" experienced by the petitioner, the court directed the Town Inspector of Police Station Morar to immediately hand over the case diary for Crime No.356/2026 to the CBI. Furthermore, the Principal Registrar of the High Court was tasked with promptly communicating a copy of the order to the Director, CBI, without delay. The court expressed its hope that the CBI would take up the probe "forthwith, without any loss of time," and complete the investigation with "reasonable expedition and dispatch." With these directives, the habeas corpus petition was disposed of, and the bench clarified that its decision to transfer the investigation did not imply any criticism of the local police's prior efforts.

This ruling establishes a precedent for High Courts to transfer complex inter-state cases, particularly those involving suspected human trafficking, to central agencies like the CBI when local police face jurisdictional limitations. Lawyers handling similar multi-jurisdictional missing person or trafficking cases can cite this decision to argue for CBI intervention, especially when local investigations are stalled or ineffective due to scope.

Source: Original reporting via a news report